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“He has a temperature of 512” 

















LITTLE ELEPHANT 
CATCHES COLD 



STORY BY HELUIZ WASHBURNE 

pictures by jean McConnell 

JUNIOR PRESS BOOKS 

albertXwh itman 

^ 4 co 

CHICAGO 


1 1 ? 


1937 



COPYRIGHT 1937, BY ALBERT WHITMAN & COMPANY 













LITHOGRAPHED IN THE U. S. A. 

MAY -S 1937 
©Cl A 106316 « 






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NE morning Little Elephant woke up and 


he didn’t feel very well. So he got out of 


bed and galumphed into his mother’s 
room, and he said, “Oh, Mama, I feel so sick!” 

His mother was snoring and she didn’t hear him. 
So he raised up his trunk and he bellowed, “OH, 
MAMA! I FEEL SO SICK!” And then she heard 
him. And she jumped out of bed in her long flannel 
nightgown. 

“What, Little Elephant! You feel sick?” she 
cried. 

“Yes, I feel drefful sick!” And his eyes were all 
criss-crossed because he had an awful pain. 

“Where do you feel sick?” asked his mother. 


5 



But just then Little Elephant went “KER¬ 
CH 0 0 0! ’ ’ And he sneezed so hard he blew his 
mother’s nightcap right off. 

“0-ho! I see,” said his mother. “I told you not 
to go out in the rain yesterday without your rub¬ 
bers. And now you have a cold.” 

“I haben’ godt a gold, honesd I haben’,” whined 
Little Elephant. And he sniffed a great big sniff. 

“Here, blow your nose,” said his mother, and 
she held out a large handkerchief of his daddy’s. 
And Little Elephant blew a great big b-l-o-w. 

“Now,” said his mother, “you can’t go to school 
today.” 

“Oh, dear,” said Little Elephant, looking very 
sad, “I ca’d go do school!” (What he really meant 
was—I can’t go out and roller-skate.) 

“And you’ll have to stay in bed all day,” his 
mother went on. 

“Oh, I don’d want do stay in bed all day,” sobbed 
Little Elephant. And he stamped his feet up and 
down. 

But Mother was very firm and she took Little 


6 








Elephant by one large ear and led him back into 
his room. 

There she plumped him into bed and pulled the 
big downy comforter up around his neck so that 
only his trunk was sticking out. Then she disap¬ 
peared from the room. When she came back she 
had a bottle and a big spoon in her hand. Little 
Elephant didn’t like the looks of the stuff she be¬ 
gan to pour into the spoon. 

“Nice castor oil,” said Mother. And before he 
knew what had happened she had taken a firm 
hold on the tender end of his trunk and was pour¬ 
ing the oily stuff down his throat. 

“Ulp, ulp, ulp!” Then it was over. 

“We must put some drops in your nose, too,” she 
said, taking another bottle from her pocket. “Now 
lie down on your back and hold your trunk up nice 
and straight.” 

“Will they hurt?” asked Little Elephant. 

“They’ll make your head feel all nice and clear 
so you can breathe better,” she told him. 

So Little Elephant held his trunk straight up 


8 



“XJlp, ulp, ulp!” Then it was over. 













in the air while Mother took the medicine dropper 
and squirted some stuff in his nose. 

It ran down his trunk like a streak of fire, and 
Little Elephant thought the top of his head was 
going off. Big tears began to trickle down his 
cheeks. Then pretty soon it stopped burning and 
Little Elephant drew a big breath. 

“There, isn’t that better?” asked Mother. “Now 
lie still; I’m going to call the doctor.” 

“Oh, oh, I don’d wand do see the doctor!” bel¬ 
lowed Little Elephant, and he ducked down under 
the covers and pulled them up in a heap so his 
mother had to make the bed all over again. 

Pretty soon the doctor came, with a little black 
bag in his hand. He was a very old elephant and 
his skin was all wrinkled. 

“Well, well, young man! What’s wrong with 
you?” he rumbled as he placed his glasses astride 
his trunk. 

But Little Elephant didn’t answer him because 
he was looking at that little black bag. 

Then the doctor opened the bag. (That was 


10 



J.N\cC. 



“Well, well, young man! What's wrong with you?” 









just what Little Elephant was afraid he would do.) 
And he took out a big thermometer. He shook it 
down and stuck it into Little Elephant’s mouth. 

“Now, hold it under your tongue,” he said. “And 
keep your mouth shut.” 

Next the doctor put his hand on Little Ele¬ 
phant’s forehead and said it seemed very hot. He 
took hold of Little Elephant’s wrist to feel his 
pulse and said it was very fast. 

Then the doctor took out the thermometer, 
looked at it and raised his eyebrows, and said, 
“Yes, he must be sick! He has a temperature of 
512. He will have to stay in bed. Now, let me see 
your tongue, young fellow!” 

So poor Little Elephant opened his mouth and 
the doctor put a piece of wood in it to hold his 
tongue down. And he said, “Say ‘A-a-h-h!’ ” 

By this time Little Elephant was pretty mad. 
So he said a great big “A-A-A-H-H-H!” and blew 
the doctor’s high silk hat off. (But then the doc¬ 
tor shouldn’t have had his hat on in the house 
anyway.) 


12 



He blew the doctor's high silk hat off. 












Just for that the doctor said that Little Ele¬ 
phant would have to have a bandage on his throat. 
So Mother took one of her old red flannel petticoats 
and tore it up into long strips—yards and yards of 
them. 

Then she rubbed hot oil all over Little Ele¬ 
phant’s neck and wrapped the bandage around and 
around and around and around and around, till Lit¬ 
tle Elephant could hardly turn his head. 

All that day Little Elephant stayed in bed. At 
first he thought it was fun, not having to go to 
school (he was in first grade). But then he got 
ever so tired of having nothing to do. He’d played 
with all his blocks and broken his toys and cray¬ 
oned all the picture books. And then there was 
nothing else to do. 

At lunch time he smelled the good things his 
mother was cooking down in the kitchen. But when 
she came upstairs with his tray she said, “I have 
some nice milk toast for you.” 

“I don’d wand ady milg doast,” said Little Ele¬ 
phant and squirmed down under the covers again. 


14 



All that day Little Elephant stayed in bed. 






But his mother said, “Very well,” and set the 
tray down on the table beside his bed and left the 
room. 

When he heard that she was all the way down¬ 
stairs again he poked his trunk out from under the 
covers and took a sniff of the steaming bowl of 
milk toast. After all it smelled pretty good and 
he was awfully hungry. 

So he sat up in bed and gulped down the milk 
toast. After that he felt better. When his mother 
came up to get the tray Little Elephant was sound 
asleep and snoring. 


16 





So he gulped down the milk toast. 












“Bless his little heart/’ she said and tiptoed out 
of the room. 

When Little Elephant woke up he heard his 
playmates outdoors shouting, “Hey, Little Ele¬ 
phant! Come on out and play.” 

“Y-e-e-y! School’s over!” cried Little Elephant. 
And he bounced out of bed and ran to the window. 

But just then Mother Elephant opened the door 
and said, “You naughty Little Elephant! Get back 
into bed this minute. Don’t you know you have a 
cold and mustn’t get in a draught?” 

But Little Elephant said, “Honesd, Mama! I 
I habed’ god a gold any more. I feel fi’d. I wand 
do go oud and roller-skade.” 

Then Mother Elephant was very severe and 
shook her trunk at Little Elephant. “If you don’t 
behave yourself I’ll have to give you another dose 
of this castor oil.” And she picked up the big bot¬ 
tle beside his bed. 

But Little Elephant jumped into bed so fast 
that his mother didn’t have to give it to him after 
all. 


18 



But Little Elephant jumped into bed. 
























Before he went to sleep that night Mother Ele¬ 
phant said, “Now you are going to have a nice hot 
bath.” So she filled the big tub full of hot water. 
The steam came up in clouds and filled the bath¬ 
room. Then Little Elephant put one foot carefully 
into the water. But he pulled it out again in a 
hurry. 

“Ouch!” he yelled, “the wader is doo hod!” 

“Nonsense!” said his mother. “That’s good for 
you. Get in.” 

So Little Elephant stepped into the water with 
all four feet. But he kept lifting them out one by 
one to cool them off. 

Finally he sat down in the water. Then it came 
up all around him and ran over the edge and made 
pools on the floor. 

Mother Elephant pulled up her skirts and said, 
“Oh, do be careful! Now my feet are all wet.” 

Little Elephant soaked and soaked in the nice 
warm water. Then his mother went out of the 
room to get his bath towel, and he thought he’d 
take a shower. So he stuck his trunk down into the 


20 



So Little Elephant stepped into the water. 




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water and drew in a big noseful. Then he raised 
it up over his head and squirted it all over himself. 

He did it again and again. It was great fun. 
Then he heard Mother coming back, but he thought 
he would have time for one more blow. So he drew 
in another big noseful and was just about to 
shower himself when he felt a sneeze coming. He 
tried pinching his trunk to stop it but he couldn’t. 

Just at that moment Mother opened the bath¬ 
room door. 

“Ha-ha-ha-chooooo!” sneezed Little Elephant. 
“Ha-ha-ha-chooooo!” 

When he opened his eyes there was Mother 
spluttering and gasping, with water running down 
all over her. 

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” she scolded when 
she caught her breath. “You naughty Little Ele¬ 
phant! Can’t I leave you alone for a minute? You 
deserve a good spanking, that you do. Now get 
out of that tub and let me dry you before you make 
any more trouble.” 

So Mother Elephant wrapped him up in a huge 


22 




There was Mother spluttering and gasping. 







bath towel and rubbed him dry. Then she popped 
him into bed with a hot water bottle at his feet, 
and gave him a large glass of hot lemonade to 
drink, with two straws in it. 

Then Mother Elephant sat down beside the bed 
and read Little Elephant the story called How The 
Elephant Got His Trunk. As she read Little Ele¬ 
phant grew hotter and hotter and hotter. 

The hot water bottle at his feet was steaming 
and the hot lemonade inside him was steaming. 

“Whew! but I’b hot!” he said. “Ca’d I take off 
some covers?” 

But Mother just said, “That’s fine!” and went on 
reading. 

Pretty soon the beads of perspiration were roll¬ 
ing down Little Elephant’s face and Mother said, 
“Now, your cold is broken. You’ll feel much better 
in the morning.” Then she kissed him goodnight 
and turned out the light. 

The next day Little Elephant was much better 
just as Mother had promised. And when she took 
his temperature it was quite normal. 


24 



But Mother just said, “That's fine!" 












“Can’t I please go to school today?” he begged. 
(For he knew if he couldn’t go to school he couldn’t 
go out and play either.) 

But his mother told him, “No, the doctor said 
you must stay in bed again today.” 

Little Elephant tried to be good about it, but 
it was very hard. His pillows just wouldn’t stay 
piled up and he had to call his mother to fix them. 
And his throat was awfully dry and scratchy and 
he had to have a drink. He didn’t want to call 
Mother again, so he jumped up and ran to the 
bathroom to get it. 

Mother heard him trotting around and came up 
from the kitchen to see what he was doing. 

“Oh! you bad child!” she cried. “Don’t you know 
you shouldn’t be running around on these cold 
floors in your bare feet? Now get into bed and stay 
there, and I’ll bring you a nice dish of junket.” 

Now Little Elephant just loved junket, especially 
strawberry junket. So he was very good for quite 
a long time. 

At last Mother brought him a bowl of the lovely 


26 








He ran to the bathroom to get it. 




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pink junket. Little Elephant put his trunk in and 
took big gulps of it and let it slide delightfully 
down his throat. 

Just as he had finished the last mouthful and 
was settling back in his pillows, he heard a fire- 
engine go tearing down the street, with its siren 
blowing “r-r-r-r-R-R-R-R-R-r-r-r-r! r-r-r-r-R-R-R- 
R-r-r-r-r!” 

So he hopped out of bed and bounced over to the 
window to see if he could catch a glimpse of the 
hook-and-ladder, or perhaps the fire itself. 

By this time he had jumped around so much 
that his bed was all pulled out at the bottom. 

Altogether Mother Elephant had a dreadful time 
trying to keep Little Elephant quietly in bed and 
attend to her baking in the kitchen. 

But the next morning was Saturday, and Little 
Elephant leaped out of bed and ran to the cupboard. 
He took down their own big thermometer, gave it 
a shake and put it in his mouth. After he had kept 
it under his tongue for quite a while he looked at 
it. 


28 



So he bounced over to the window 






















The silver line was right at the red arrow where 
it should be; so he galloped in to his mother’s room. 

“Oh, Mama! I’m not sick today!” he shouted, 
pulling her trunk to wake her up. 

“Look at my fever, it’s all gone!” and he showed 
her the thermometer. 

Mother sat up in bed, rubbed her eyes and 
straightened her nightcap. 

“Hand me my spectacles,” she said. 

So Little Elephant gave her her spectacles. She 
put them on and looked at the thermometer. 

“Hmmmm! That’s good,” she said. “Now let 
me see your throat.” Little Elephant opened his 
mouth very wide. “Say ‘A-a-h-h!’ ” she told him. 

“A-A-A-H-H-H-H-H!” said Little Elephant very 
loud. 

But Mother remembered what had happened to 
the doctor’s high silk hat, and grabbed her night¬ 
cap just in time. 

“Yes, you can go out today,” she said. 

“Ye-e-e-y!” shouted Little Elephant and dashed 
out of the room. 


30 


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“Look at my fever, it’s all gone!” 












In a minute Mother Elephant heard him 
galumphing down the stairs three steps at a time. 
There was a dreadful clatter and thumping as he 
fastened his roller skates on all four feet. In 
another minute the door banged. 

When Mother Elephant looked out of the win¬ 
dow she saw Little Elephant coasting down the 
hill full tilt, waving his trunk and trumpeting for 
joy. 




























































































































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